Ever imagined you have a different life? That instead of working the 9-5 grind you actually own a tiki-surf hut in Cornwall and survive on holiday shags and cream teas. Course you have because you’re human. If you’re Zayn Malik, your alternative reality involves being an English literature professor.
Speaking to VMan, the Bradford-born singer said that if he hadn’t signed up for The X Factor all those fateful years ago, joined One Direction, broken the hearts of everyone in the world by leaving the group and launching a successful solo career, he’d probs have followed a path into academia.
“I think about alternative realities,” he said. “I think I’d be at university and I would have done my English degree. I think I’d be looking for some employment to do with English lecturing or literature.”
Zayn’s reasoning behind these career aspirations is because he just loves writing and poetry. “Obviously, I’m a songwriter, so it would’ve been something that would still give me the feeling of a creative outlet within my writing,” he added.
This isn’t the first time that Zayn has expressed his affinity for all things literary. Last year he released his first autobiography-cum-photography book, handily titled Zayn. In said tome, he again expressed his love of reading and education, calling it “one of the most important things you can have”.
Likewise, he told The Sunday Times Culture magazine that he still plans to go to university, too. “You know what, to educate yourself isn’t that hard these days,” he explained. “You can do it at home. You can go to lectures — just sit there, which hopefully, at some point, I can do — like, just sit and listen to a lecture.” That’s one way to save on student loans, we suppose.
Meanwhile, Zayn teased his upcoming second album, which is expected for release this year, saying that it’s all a bit more organised than his debut, Mind of Mine.
“I feel like the songs are a bit more organised, where I felt like, before, that Mind of Mine was a brainstorm,” he said. “That’s why I called it Mind of Mine, because it was ideas that I had that I put out. This one is more thought out. I had more time to process everything and go through it all. It’s an evolution.”